Guest column: Safety plan moves Tennessee in right direction

Gov. Bill Haslam's overriding goal is for Tennessee to be first in the southeast United States for high-quality jobs. While there are several areas of focus to get us to that goal, the level of crime in a community can be a major factor in a decision by an existing business to remain or expand or a decision by a new business to locate there.

Realizing the need for a common plan to help make our state safer, Haslam created a Public Safety Subcabinet to develop and implement it. The subcabinet includes 11 departments and agencies within the executive branch that impact public safety.

The multiyear action plan, announced last January, has three key goals: reducing drug trafficking and addiction, curbing the level of violent crime and cutting the rate of repeat offenders. A year later, significant progress has been made on a number of action steps. We will continue pushing forward in 2013.

The good news is that reported major crimes dropped slightly in 2011 and, according to preliminary figures from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, dropped again in 2012. However, Tennessee's violent crime rate rose slightly due primarily to increases in specific communities, including Memphis, and remains significantly above the nationwide rate.

Pseudoephedrine is a key ingredient in manufacturing methamphetamine. Despite tougher federal and state laws that restrict sales of pseudoephedrine to behind the counter, limit the quantity of purchases and provide for real-time tracking of buyers and even a system of blocking sales over the limit, both the sales of pseudoephedrine products and the number of seized meth labs increased from 2011 to 2012. Under the state plan, we will continue to tackle this major aspect of our drug problem.

The commissioners of the Department of Health and the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services call the abuse of prescription drugs in Tennessee an epidemic. In 2011, more people died from drug overdoses in Tennessee than in vehicle accidents.

The rate of overdose deaths in our state attributed to opiate pain relievers is significantly above the national average. In 2012, as part of the governor's plan, state lawmakers passed the Tennessee Prescription Safety Act. This legislation does many things to help stop this epidemic, but primarily requires prescribers to check a database before writing a prescription for pain killers or tranquilizers, and pharmacists to report to the same database within 10 days of dispensing such a prescription.

The plan calls for stepped-up support for effective drug treatment courts. Haslam's proposed budget for the next fiscal year calls for an increase of $1.6 million in state funding to support such courts.

We recognize that alcohol abuse is a major part of our substance abuse problem. As part of the plan, state troopers are being deployed in ways to have the maximum impact on driving under the influence, the result being a 70 percent increase in the last two years in DUI arrests by troopers. And this year, we are proposing a major rewrite of our DUI law to make it easier to understand by law enforcement, prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges.

In 2012, more than half of all reported violent crimes in Tennessee were domestic-related. Tennessee is among the top in the nation for the rate at which women are killed at the hands of men. We have implemented steps in the plan to help reverse this trend. Mandatory minimum sentences are now in place for repeat domestic violence offenders. And we've opened the state's second family safety center in Shelby County (the first being in Knoxville). This one-stop shop is helping victims get the resources they need to get help and keep their families safe while prosecuting the offenders. We hope to see more of these centers open across the state.

Gang violence, which threatens many neighborhoods in our major cities, is also a growing threat in other communities across our state. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, gang-related crime has increased steadily over the past several years. The TBI believes that gang members in Tennessee now outnumber law enforcement officers two-to-one.

As part of Haslam's plan, legislation passed last year increases the punishments for certain crimes committed by groups of three or more individuals. Other legislation created tougher sentences for convicted felons in possession of firearms. This year, the governor will propose additional legislation to tackle gang violence.

More than 24 percent of state inmates released in 2011 returned to the correctional system in 2012. And more than 40 percent of state inmates are reconvicted within three years of the year they were released from incarceration or supervision. A pilot inmate re-entry initiative in Shelby County holds promise for reducing the number of repeat offenders and can serve as a model for the rest of the state.

Many of the answers to making our state safer reside at the community level. The Operation: Safe Community plan in Memphis and Shelby County is a great example of how city, county, state and federal officials can join together with the private sector to develop a common plan of attack on crime. And as for action by state government, the state plan and the local plan mirror each other.

Together, we can make Memphis, Shelby County and Tennessee safer, which in turn will better position us for the kind of job growth we want and need.

Bill Gibbons is commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security and chairman of the governor's Public Safety Subcabinet and Operation: Safe Community.